Now that his treatments are done, have you considered getting his weight down? It will put less stress on his entire system and make him healthier over all. There is a lot of evidence that chemo damages other parts of the body besides the cancer, including joints and bones. Getting his weight down should help mitigate that damage because there will be less stress on his body.

Michelle

Inside me is a thin woman trying to get out. I usually shut the bitch up with a martini.

mnp13 wrote:Now that his treatments are done, have you considered getting his weight down? It will put less stress on his entire system and make him healthier over all. There is a lot of evidence that chemo damages other parts of the body besides the cancer, including joints and bones. Getting his weight down should help mitigate that damage because there will be less stress on his body.

Well... I am ALMOST appalled at the suggestion that Beast is "fluffy"...

Anyway, seriously - Dr. Correa wants me to feed him THREE pounds of RAW daily (half in the morning, half at night), but right now I'm lucky if I get ONE pound into him. He will only eat at night, absolutely never in the morning.It is very hot and humid here right now, so we mainly do our long walk/playing early in the morning, around three or four. He also carries his backpack w/four-pound weights in each pocket when we do walk (about 1 1/2 - 2 hours). For the most part he's very active outside when he feels okay.

Any suggestions on HOW to get his weight down? I'm somehow suspecting that it has to do w/the cancer, not so much that he's "too fat" from eating too much or lazing around.

No thyroid problems.He weighted 75 pounds when he was diagnosed w/lymphoma in January and is now down to 69. How would I determine muscle mass?

mnp13 wrote:Your dog was fluffy back in DecemberI know a little fat gives them some reserves, but fat is not healthy ever.

This is true. He also went through two surgeries last summer - one was to remove a tumor from his head, the other one was to remove a cataract in his left eye and put in an artificial lens. We were supposed to keep him quiet/sedated for three months after that, so his eye had time to heal and the lens wouldn't shift. He was only allowed to go out to potty - no running, jumping, nothing.

So... any concrete diet advise???Like I mentioned - he eats probably 4-5 days out of 7, about a pound of RAW.I DID bring up his weight gain during chemo therapy and Dr. Correa was not happy w/me... she insisted that he didn't need to lose weight and that I up his RAW to 3 pounds a day. Which I haven't done, because it would go to waste... he won't eat that much.

Could it be that switching him to RAW caused him to gain weight? I know that he looked much leaner when he was on kibble (the crappy kind)... should I try some high-quality kibble?

He doesn't "feel" flabby to me, he is very solid - I am open to suggestions though on how to slim him down a little.We are as active as he wants to be and we walk A LOT when he feels up to it. Also go swimming whenever possible, play fetch, etc.

3 pounds of food is a lot... Layla was eating just under a pound of RAW a day when we first switched her to kibble and she weighed about 60 pounds. She dropped 10 pounds in about 2 months. We fed once in the morning and once at night. I slowly dropped her food down to about 3/4 lb per day and now we just switched to feeding once/day because she's still got about 5-7 pounds to lose. Right now she's at 49 pounds and gets fed once per day at night. We do either a chicken quarter, half a turkey neck or a barf pattie (we rotate through whatever we've got, with fish about once a week), plus her supplements and thats it.

She only gets about 1/2lb per day and thats it. I'm not sure about with him just getting over the cancer and the chemo treatments if his nutritional needs may be different, but it may be as simple as just cutting his food back

Yeah, depending on what she gets each day it ends up being about 5-7lbs per week. Some chicken backs and turkey necks weigh more than others and I dont weigh them, I just eye ball them. We got adult turkey necks and I cut them in half, so she gets half per day. She gains weight really easily and has a very slow metabolism. She's still a few pounds above where I'd like her and she's by no means hungry. If she were hungry with me cutting back her food, I'd find another way to drop her weight, but she's doing great so far.